When the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) servers were attacked in a ransomware attack last year, India experienced one of the most significant cyberattacks. According to a new survey, the healthcare sector in India was the most frequently attacked, despite a 38% rise in global cyberattacks in 2022 compared to 2021.
Ransomware groups boost several cyberattacks. According to Check Point Research (CPR), smaller, more nimble hacker groups and ransomware gangs were responsible for these cyberattacks. The cybercriminals targeted educational institutions that transitioned to online learning after COVID-19 and concentrated on abusing collaborative technologies used in work-from-home contexts.
Data Group Manager at Check Point Software, Omer Dembinsky, opinionated that Hackers target hospitals because they perceive them as lacking in cyber security resources, with smaller hospitals particularly vulnerable, as they are underfunded and understaffed to battle a sophisticated cyberattack.
In November, a ransomware attack that purportedly originated in China was directed at India’s top government healthcare facility.
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With direct threats from ransomware gangs to patients, demanding payment under the threat of having patient records released, he added that the healthcare sector is so lucrative to hackers as their goal is to retrieve health insurance information, medical record numbers, and sometimes even social security numbers.
Authorities were apprehensive that the data of millions of patients, including VIPs like previous prime ministers, ministers, bureaucrats, and judges, had been compromised during the AIIMS attack. Still, according to the IT authorities conducting the investigation, it had been decrypted.
The Frequency of Cyberattacks Worldwide Is At Its Peak
Additionally, the studies showed that, with an average of 1168 attacks per organisation each week, the number of cyberattacks worldwide reached an all-time high in Q4. In terms of the most attacked industries in 2022, healthcare is followed by education/research and government/military in second and third place, respectively.
The report also revealed that hackers deploy AI technologies like ChatGPT, which are publicly accessible, to produce harmful code and emails at a quicker, more automated rate. Researchers from Check Point Research previously described how hackers might use the ChatGPT AI chatbot to create harmful code and phishing emails.
